In air travel, water travel, rail travel, bus travel, and the like it is common for passengers to store their carry-on luggage and bags in overhead storage bins located in the passenger compartment, typically over the passenger seats. Typically, each overhead storage bin is loosely associated with a block of passenger seats by proximity, can hold a number of bags, and utilizes a relatively large door. When passengers board an airplane, boat, train, bus, or the like, it is common for them to open several overhead storage bin doors as they walk down the aisle in the passenger compartment, checking for empty overhead storage bin space for their bags. This is a time-consuming process that slows down the passenger boarding process. It also presents a potential safety issue. The fewer overhead storage bin doors each passenger has to open and the more quickly each passenger finds empty overhead storage bin space for their bags the better in terms of efficiency and safety.
In order to address this problem, several overhead storage bin space detection and display systems have been developed. These typically consist of an electromagnetic beam sensor or the like disposed in the interior of an overhead storage bin configured to detect the present of a bag or other object in the overhead storage bin. Such presence/absence is then signaled to passengers and flight crew using a full/empty light disposed adjacent to the overhead storage bin. In one refinement, the electromagnetic beam sensor is replaced with a load sensor operable for determining bag or other object weight in the overhead storage bin and coordinating this with an overall utilization percentage. This information is then communicated via a display. Disadvantageously, these overhead storage bin space detection and display systems provide simple binary full/empty information and/or provide only an overall utilization percentage. They do nothing to provide horizontal or vertical space utilization information within the overhead storage bin.
What is still needed in the art is an overhead storage bin space utilization detection and display system that detects bags or other objects within an overhead storage bin, assesses both horizontal and vertical space utilization within the overhead storage bin, and communicates this information to passengers and/or crew members such that empty overhead storage bin space can be readily identified and utilized.